Gerber, Wälti (d. 1566)

Wälti Gerber, of Röthenbach, a Swiss Anabaptist martyr, a respected and outstanding Swiss Brethren preacher in the Emmental, attended a disputation in Bern in 1538, presumably the great disputation of March, records of which are in the state archives. These records name "Welltti Gerwer" in a list of Swiss and Bavarian Anabaptists. He escaped from prison with the aid of an Anabaptist locksmith of Burgdorf. He remained true to his faith and preached and baptized. He stressed the teaching that the Christian cannot be a ruler. The Bernese government was not able to apprehend him until they offered a reward of 100 guilders for his capture; he was executed 30 July 1566.

In the first edition of the Martyrs' Mirror (1660), van Braght does not name Wälti Gerber, although he must have known of his death from a letter written by the elders of Alsace, listing 42 martyrs in the canton of Bern. He omitted the names of the Bernese martyrs of 1566 intentionally, for he feared "it might cause them (the brethren in Bern) greater persecution, from which they are not yet entirely free." But he is listed in the German edition of Ephrata in 1748.